Few deny the impressive and surprisingly consistent creativity Nintendo has delivered for more than 40 years, but even within that ecosystem of fun ideas, Rhythm Heaven stands out. The series represents a wonderful and wildly unique collection of concepts that are not beholden to Nintendo’s history and make me happy, proud, anxious, and angry all in equal measure. Groove is not my favorite in the series, but it stands tall alongside the rest to earn permanent placement on my Switch hard drive.
If you’re unfamiliar, Rhythm Heaven (and Groove is no exception) is a collection of individual rhythm minigames that sound and play differently but are all based on tapping only one button (but occasionally two) in time with infectious music and charming visuals. Sometimes you’re a frog launching fellow frogs into the air with a lilypad trampoline. Sometimes you have to bounce fruit across your arms by flexing your muscles. All the games are weird, they all have little stories, and they’re all memorable in one way or another.
Groove’s collection is great. I genuinely don’t think there is a single game among its more than 100 single and multiplayer games that I actively dislike. But there also weren’t any I immediately flagged as new, all-time favorites. The larger collection meets, but does not exceed, my expectations for strange and memorable games and music, which I am more than happy with.
Beatspell is the most unique new mode that functions a bit like an action game, even if it is pitched as a turn-based RPG. As you earn medals and complete games, you get the opportunity to make more progress in Beatspell, which involves using specific rhythms to execute offensive and defensive spells against enemies. It has an optional story to read, which I appreciate, as Rhythm Heaven historically does not care about context (and it doesn’t need to). I like making choices about which spells to acquire, as it is a factor of weakness consideration, but also, which rhythms you are good at executing. Playing Beatspell without having to make progress in the main game would have been nice, but I do see the value in spreading it out over the larger experience. It prevents you from losing yourself to one musical game for too long, which can be exhausting, as all the games require extreme focus.
Taking breaks and jumping around is the best way to play, and another way the game smartly encourages that is by randomly, periodically picking a game that you are allowed to attempt to get a Perfect score on. Even if you have a perfect run, you won’t get the special badge unless you get it perfect during these specific moments. I don’t mind the opportunity to perfect a game popping up without warning – it makes your attempts special and scary. But it can be annoying to have to wait to try to get the badge on Slice N Dice Kitchen, for example, when you’ve really got the hang of it and happen to be in the mood to play it.
And speaking of Perfect attempts, I struggled to play Rhythm Heaven Groove on a TV. A dedicated character warns you in that cute Nintendo way that TV or wireless headphone play may cause difficult-to-perceive delays and highlights settings that attempt to address those issues, but it just wasn’t enough for me. My Really Goods and Just OKs changed to Awesomes and Superbs the moment I switched to handheld and wired headphones. It is a frustrating technical limitation, but one that can thankfully be overcome as long as you don’t mind playing outside the dock.
The other unexpected downside of Groove is that its menus are oddly underwhelming. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter because the games are fun and the music is great; that’s the important part. But I was surprised at how unfinished the UI feels, especially when compared to the bombastic presentation of Rhythm Heaven Megamix on 3DS.
Beatspell is Groove’s most novel element, and it’s an exciting mode that I would be eager to play as a potential standalone game in the future. The core rhythm minigames don’t offer quite the same level of bizarre surprise as previous games in the series, but they are all still very good, and I absolutely see myself returning to them in the future when I am craving that unique, rewarding rhythm gameplay.
